Poole looks to boost private patient income

FINANCE: Poole Hospital Foundation Trust plans to increase income by £2.6m over the next three years, partly through increasing private patient income.

The trust’s annual plan reveals the intention of maintaining income at 2010-11 levels in 2011-12, while delivering a cost improvement plan of £9.5m. It plans to increase income by £1.7m, equivalent to 0.9 per cent of the trust’s £188m turnover, in 2012-13 and reduce costs by £7.8m and then increase income by a further £0.9m in 2013-14.

The plan assumes an increase in private patient income from £0.7m in 2010-11 to £1m in 2011-12 and £1.6m in 2012-13. Management consultants were appointed in May at a cost of about £50,000 to develop and implement a strategy. The trust hopes to make additional income of £40,000 per month from October 2011 and £80,000 per month from January 2012.

The trust has been in significant breach of its authorisation with Monitor since July 2010, after it reported an operational deficit of £4.5m. The management team is currently developing plans for a merger with Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Foundation Trust.

The annual plan reveals the board expects the impact of reductions in NHS activity to be less severe than elsewhere in England, due to the trust’s case mix which is described as “largely emergency based”.

It adds: “The trust is also expected to benefit from activity growth as a result of demographic changes, (i.e. increasing elderly population), and from growth in services such as oncology.”

The trust is also developing a cataract surgery in Poole Hospital with consultants from Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Foundation Trust, which it is hoped will provide an additional £60,000 per month from October.

The trust, which reduced its capacity by more than 100 beds during 2010-11 and planned to remove a further 39 during the first quarter of this year, is also developing a marketing plan to sell spare capacity go local and tertiary providers.